Want a deeper insight into what an ICS placement looks like? Read the amazing blogs written by our past and present volunteers. Enjoy the journey!
I was a volunteer in the Oct-Dec 2015 cycle in the community of Santa Catarina Masahuat, El Salvador. We were the first cycle on a varied project which involved supporting a youth civic rights group and the construction of a children´s playground and seating area using sustainable eco-building techniques. There was, quite literally, never a quiet moment.
The vast difference in climate between El Salvador and the UK makes it an interesting place to be on World Environment Day. We are here in rainy season, which means downpours of torrential rain have become a regular occurrence. Thankfully they only last a few hours in the afternoon, so we have the rest of the day to top up our tans in the beautiful Salvadorian sun. Seeing lighting storms at night and listening to the heavy rain crash down on our tin roofs as we drift off to sleep is all part of this unique experience.
The world seems to be waking up to the issue of climate change and just how precarious the situation of the environment is. The condition of the environment hangs in the balance and it is the choices that we make that can make such a huge difference. Days like World Environment Day (WED) help bring these issues to the consciousness of people all around the world.
Once I hurtled ever on
Twisting here and thither
Once I rumbled and I rolled
Once I was the river
Now I gurgle and I gasp
Where once I rushed and roared
As cattle steal a thirsty gulp
Which I can ill afford
Once great men observed and wrote
Each one doubting never
That while man stumbles and he fails
I’d go on forever
They dreamed of all I’d oversee
With nature’s right divine
To watch unmoved and unperturbed
The unfurling grand design
5 June marks World Environment Day, but here in Honduras Day of the Tree is celebrated on 30 May, and the two naturally go hand in hand quite nicely. Lately, our team here in Honduras, has had the environment around us on the mind quite a bit, especially with these occasions coming up.
Will we say that we were right?
When millions flee drought-ravaged homes
And we turn them from ours, will we say
That wind turbines are an eyesore?
Will we say it would not have worked?
Should floods become as part of our seasons
As the first greens of Spring, will we say
That solar was unreliable?
Will we keep our priorities?
If political differences one day succumb
To the instinct of survival, will we say
“Well, what about jobs?”
Will our doubts not subside?
Before I went to Malawi with Progressio my main concern was where I would be staying. I was very apprehensive ahead of meeting my family in Malawi especially as I was one of the youngest members of our team and had never been away from home for such a long length of time. When I arrived in the country the first few days were spent in accommodation shared with the rest of the team, whilst we were having our in country training.
Como parte del proceso de aprendizaje y crecimiento personal de los voluntarios de Progressio ICS en Nicaragua, ASOMUPRO organizó una visita de intercambio de experiencias a mujeres micro empresarias y socias de ASOMUPRO, dueñas de una granja apícola en Telpaneca.
Durante la visita aprendimos el proceso para producir miel de abejas y tuvimos la oportunidad de conocer a mujeres emprendedoras dueñas de sus iniciativas económicas.
A fundamental part of the ICS journey is Action at Home – taking the community development values we experienced overseas and applying them to projects of our own interest. For my team, cycle 3 of the Rowa Runners, there was one matter close to all our hearts and that was the ‘special project’ we had gotten involved in alongside our other development work in rural Zimbabwe.
Our experience of volunteering with Progressio has been amazing. Progressio is promoting a wonderful cross cultural exchange platform for national volunteers in Zimbabwe and the UK volunteers. The UK volunteers are now able to speak basic Shona. They are now copying us with the traditional dress, e.g. wearing a wrap over. We as national volunteers like to dance, however, the UK volunteers still haven’t got the hang of our style of dance. Though they do give it a try and give us a bit of a laugh too.
